


Sleep in Peace When Day Is Done

by Theoroark



Series: Feeling Good [6]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Angst, Brainwashing, Coercive Medical Procedures, Established Relationship, F/F, Implied Sexual Content, Medical Trauma, Team Talon (Overwatch), implied PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2017-10-22
Packaged: 2019-01-21 13:35:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12458865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theoroark/pseuds/Theoroark
Summary: Widowmaker slips. Sombra steps up. Everyone makes their decisions.





	Sleep in Peace When Day Is Done

Sombra got the call right in the middle of the StarCraft World Championship stream. She fumbled for her holovid, tore her eyes away from the screen just long enough to read the caller’s name, and groaned. She answered, tossed the holovid on the couch next to her, and did not bother to mute the video.

“Kind of busy, boss.”

Gabe waited for the sound of animated explosions to die down before he spoke. “Sombra. I need you to go to the gym.”

“Ouch, Gabe. You know, organic material is significantly harder to metabolize than the souls of the recently deceased. You can’t judge.”

“Sombra, I need you to go to the gym to help me with Widowmaker.”

Sombra muted the stream and picked up the holovid. “Widow? What happened?”

“She’s fine. I’m just dealing with other things right now. And I’d like you to escort her back to her room.”

“Escort her back–“ Sombra pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead, trying to determine the order of importance for all her questions. Why did Widow need to be helped back to her room; what had happened, he still hadn’t told her; what was he doing, that he couldn’t be with her; what exactly was his definition of fine; why had he called her, of all people?

“Sombra.” She jerked back to reality. “There was an altercation. That is all. Personnel would like her to have someone with her on her way back to her quarters, in order to avoid another one. It’s not serious. You know how she gets right before her reconditioning.”

Sombra stood up and let out a deep breath. “Yeah,” she said. “I know. I’m on my way.”

-

She passed by Gabe on her way in, but he was deep in conversation with Maximilien, and she did not feeling like dealing with two council members at that moment. So she only caught a snippet of their conversation as she entered the gym.

“…really worth it,” Max was saying.

“It’s not just about loyalty, she…”

She ignored them and the sick feeling in her gut and looked around for Widow. It wasn’t hard to find her– there was no one else in the place, and the still-glowing screens of the treadmills and ellipticals made it clear they had left recently. Widow was sitting on a weightlifting bench, holding a bottle of water and staring at the floor.

“Hey,” Sombra said, when she was standing in front of her. Widow said nothing. “You uh. Want to go back to your room?” Widow stood up silently and walked towards the door, sending Sombra scrambling to keep up with her long stride. As they left, she heard Max and Gabe speaking again.

“…unsustainable.”

“I’m not the one you…”

She caught up with Widow and glanced over at her. Her face was unusually expressive, and anger was written all over it. Sombra looked down. “Hey, we uh, don’t have to talk about what happened or anything, but I think it might be a good idea if I stayed at your place, at least for a bit?”

“Okay.” Sombra blinked.

“Really?”

“Yes. I was going to call you over tonight anyway. Why not.” Widow pushed a stray hair behind her ear with disproportionate ferocity.

They entered an elevator and Sombra studied Widow out of the corner of her eye. When she was a child, she had prided herself on being able to spot any mark’s weak points, but Widow had always been a challenge. She had no apparent injuries, and looked relatively unruffled. But she was breathing at what was, for her, an accelerated rate, and she wasn’t carrying anything but her water bottle– she must have left things in her locker, she should go back and get them for her, maybe in the evening–

The elevator dinged and Widow stared at her pointedly before stalking out.

“Widow, wait up–“ Widow stopped, but only to stare at the card-scanner lock on her door, pat down her leggings in some vain hope, and swear under her breath. Sombra jogged up to her and touched her fingertips to it.

“Comforting,” Widow said as a purple skull appeared on the display and the lock clicked open. She breezed past Sombra and into her apartment, which was dark and finely and classically decorated and still set Sombra slightly on edge. Widow pulled a single wine glass from a kitchen cabinet, pulled the cork out of a bottle with her teeth, and spoke to Sombra as she poured. “So. What did you want to talk about?”

“I told you, we don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to,” she said as she walked over to the counter. Widow took a long drink.

“I want to get drunk and I want to fuck you and I want today to be over. But I know you’re not going to let me do any of that until you’ve gotten whatever you’re so concerned about off your chest. So, talk.”

Widow was staring at the counter, both hands on the base of her glass and knuckles white. Sombra leaned on the counter, her hands falling near Widow’s. Widow flinched but did not move away.

“Okay. Reyes says there was an ‘altercation.’ What happened?”

Widow’s voice was clipped and precise. “Someone came up behind me while I was on the treadmill. They tapped my shoulder. I kicked them in the stomach and slammed them into the ground. It was an instinctive response. They did nothing wrong.”

Sombra waited for a moment, but Widow said nothing else. “Okay well uh. Look, people have startled you before and you haven’t attacked them, so why do you think–“

“You know why, Sombra.”

“Yeah. Okay.” She drummed her fingers on the counter, trying to determine what the right question was. Widow took another drink.

“What part of it don’t you like?” she finally asked. Widow looked up at her.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, is it the fact that it’s wearing off that’s putting you on edge, or the fact that you’re going into it tomorrow? Do you– do you–“

“Do I want this?” Widow asked. Her tone was mocking and Sombra winced internally. It was the wrong question. What Widowmaker wanted had ceased to be relevant the second she was born.

“They could be convinced, probably,” she tried. “If it’s– if it’s the latter, I guess, you could have them do it more often, keep it from wearing off? Or. Uh. If you want it to be longer–“

“I already asked,” Widow said. “It used to be every week. Now it’s every month. I’ve only been on this schedule for about a year.” Sombra blinked.

“Oh. Okay.” They stood in silence for a minute, Widow staring into her glass. Sombra cleared her throat. “So uh, does that mean–“

“I don’t want this, Sombra,” Widow said, very quietly.

“Okay.”

“It’s like once a month, they take the color out of my life. And I start to get some flashes of it at the end of the first week and I can almost see like I used to at the end of the month, and then it just goes away again. If I could just forget that the world had color, and I’m sure they could make me forget, but I–“

She dropped her head, her long ponytail falling over her shoulder. Sombra took a deep breath.

“Okay. So what do you want to do?”

Widow jerked her head up and there it was, that expressive face, all confusion. “What are you talking about? They’re not going to let me extend it anymore. They probably won’t even let me keep this schedule.”

“Widow. You aren’t limited to what they let you do.” The confusion remained and Sombra smiled slightly. “The reconditioning is coding, Widow. You know that, right? The chip they put in you?” Widow nodded slowly. “So I can stop it. I can null the chip. They won’t be able to recondition you. Is that what you want?”

Widow stared at her and Sombra worked to keep the smile on her face, worked to not let her fear show. “They would find out eventually, Sombra,” she said, slowly.

“Yeah. They would.”

“There would be severe repercussions. You would probably be conditioned as well.”

“Yeah.”

“And so. We would have to leave Talon. Very soon. For good.”

“Yeah.”

Widow was silent and Sombra laid her hand on her wrist. “I know it’s a lot,” she said. “But I think it’s what’s best for you. And more importantly, I think it’s what you want.”

Widow met her gaze. “What about you? You– I know you have some plan, something you’re working on.”

“Talon would help with that. I don’t need them though.”

“We would be hunted–“

“I’ve been hunted before. And we’re the best at what we do. If anyone could survive, it’s us.”

“Sombra,” she said, very quiet again. “I’m afraid of this. And I haven’t been afraid of anything, in years.”

Sombra gently pulled her hand off the wine glass. She interlaced their fingers and Widow closed her eyes.

“I’ll be here. No matter what you do,” Sombra said. “I’m afraid too. But I just want you to be happy.”

Widow opened her eyes and dropped her hand. She walked around the counter and Sombra turned, watching her as she moved through the apartment and sat down on her sleek black leather couch. Widow leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, and sighed.

“It’s tomorrow,” she said. “And I can’t guarantee what I’ll say once they’ve done it. If you have to, you can wait a month, but I think it makes the most strategic sense, if you can–“

Sombra grinned and almost ran over to her. “It’s a standard code insert,” she said as she sat down next to her, putting an arm over her shoulder and projecting an example in her other hand. “And you know, I made almost all of Talon’s firewalls, so that’s no problem. Because it’s all done by this one machine I’m going to have to break into the labs, but that’s nothing–“

Widow laid her head on Sombra shoulder, but Sombra could still see her smiling. “Of all the people I could have picked on base…”

“You always had good taste, spider.” Widow elbowed her lightly and she beamed. “Okay, thinking ahead– Max sounded a little concerned. Are there any other executives you think would be suspicious if you started acting weird?”

“Hmm.”

“You hang out with Akande sometimes. Is that going to be–?”

“What? God, no. Akande’s the one who got me the month schedule.”

Sombra blinked. “Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, you know his thing. Struggle creates strength. He thinks that they’re limiting my potential by keeping me from struggling with myself.”

“Huh.”

Widow nodded against her shoulder. “He’s a cool guy, Sombra.”

“He’s a terrifying guy, Widow.” Widow nudged her again and she nudged her back. “Okay, but really. Anyone I should keep an eye on?”

“Yes,” Widow said slowly.

“Max?”

“No.”

Widow was looking away from her and Sombra’s stomach sank. “Okay,” she said, trying to keep up their earlier enthusiasm. “I’ll keep tabs on him. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

“He’s smarter than you think, Sombra,” Widow said. “And he knows more about you than he lets on. You underestimate him.”

“However much he knows about me, I know more about him,” she said steadily. “And I’ve gotten this far. And we only have to make it another couple weeks, tops. We can do that.”

Widow pushed herself upright. “You’re sure you want to do this?” she asked.

Sombra held her gaze. “Yeah. You?”

Widow leaned in and kissed her, slowly and deeply. Sombra let herself be pushed down, and Widow pulled back slightly when she was straddling her.

“You… do so much for me,” she said. Her breathing had sped up again, Sombra noticed. “I don’t understand. I haven’t done anything for you–“

“Widow. Hey. Widow.” Widow focused on her as Sombra put her hand on her cheek. “I love you. Shut up.”

Widow smiled and kissed her again. “So you got everything off your chest, huh?” she said, before Sombra pulled her back down.

-

Widow had woken up as Sombra was leaving. “Good luck,” she had said, loosely holding Sombra’s hand as Sombra attempted to dress one-handed. “Call me if you need me.”

“If I call you, you run,” Sombra said.

“Sombra.”

“Widow. I’m serious. You know me, I can get out of most anything. We get out, we meet up at the defunct omnium five miles out. It makes the most sense, for both of us.”

She squeezed her hand gently. “Okay.” Sombra knelt down and she kissed her softly. “Come back quickly.”

“That’s the plan,” Sombra said.

The reconditioning took place in the research wing. There was a desk and a computer in the corner and a single chair in the middle of the room and above it, a great orb that split at the bottom into four sections, like the seed of a crape myrtle. Sombra knelt on the chair, tugged the orb down gently, and began her hack.

There were only a few people Talon had conditioned, and so finding Widow’s code was easy enough. But as she opened it, the sheer weight of the data hit her. The suppression signals were sharp and suffocating, the augmentation was shrill, and the code repeated itself over and over again. Sombra calculated it to be 18 hours of being told to feel nothing and do everything.

Widow had borne this for years, she thought. Sombra had put her body and her mind through their paces after the security breach. But she was not sure if she could have survived this.

The null command sat in her palm. She shook herself out of her thoughts and began to insert it. This wasn’t her place. The key to understanding this was back in the apartment, not here. And she had told Widow she would come back quickly.

The command slipped into Widow’s code, silent and invisible. Sombra carefully pushed the orb back up and slide off the chair.

Gabe was standing in the doorway.

“Undo it, Sombra,” he said. His voice was calm and she remained in place, frozen with fear.

“Gabe,” she said after a moment, after summoning back her fake smile. “Let’s talk about this, huh?”

He folded his arms and said nothing. Sombra settled back into the chair, crossed her legs and rested her head on her chin. “It’s no skin off your back, you know,” she said. “She’ll still have the skills. She’ll still have the body. She’ll just be happier, you know? Everyone’s happy.”

He laughed shortly. “You’re so stupid sometimes, Sombra.” She dropped the smile.

“How did you even know I was down here?” she asked waspishly.

“I called you, to see how Widow had done. You didn’t pick up. I called Widow. Asked her if she knew where you were. She said she didn’t. She looked nervous. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Widow nervous before, you know.”

_She’s not going to run_ , she realized. Widow wouldn’t know what had happened, wouldn’t run until she had to, until she knew for sure their cover was blown. If Sombra failed here, she doomed them both.

“Yeah. Well. Anyway.” She picked at the cloth covering of the armrest. “‘You’re stupid’ isn’t a great rebuttal, you know. I’m still right. We can ask Akande, if you want.”

If the mention of Doomfist fazed him, he did not show it. He sighed heavily again. “I know you think you’re being kind, in your selfish way,” he said. “But you don’t understand what you are dealing with. And I do.”

Sombra remembered the file before Widow’s, labeled “SN: REAPER.”

“She asked me to do it, Gabe,” she said. “She doesn’t want this. She wants it back to what it was before.”

“She’s not the same person she was before. Amélie Lacroix could not stomach the things Widowmaker has done.”

Sombra remembered combing through decades worth of highly classified Overwatch intel.

“Fine. That wouldn’t work out. But this isn’t working either. She hates it. You saw her today. You have to know.”

“She would be fine if she was reconditioned more often,” Gabe said. Sombra watched him carefully, watched the wisps of matter break off from his feet and come crawling back.

“I could stop yours, too,” she said. “If you want.”

He stared at her for a moment, then laughed again. “So, so stupid.”

“Widow likes it, Widow wants it–“

“And what are you and _Widow_ going to do next, Sombra?” She grit her teeth at his mocking tone. “You can’t stay here. You’re both top-bounty fugitives, from all sides. How long do you think you’ll last?”

“We’re the best at what we do. If anyone can survive, it’s us.” She had felt brave and noble saying that to Widow, but here, under the false eyes of Gabe's mask, she felt like a child.

“Undo it, Sombra.”

“You really don’t want to stop it? You really don’t want to have control again?”

“You still don’t understand,” Gabe said. His clawed fingers were curling in and the wisps were climbing up his legs. “You think I need you, to stop this? You think I’m that powerless here? That stupid? I do this because it’s the best thing for me, Sombra. And so you need to trust me when I say that this is the best thing for Widow.”

Sombra remembered reading Widowmaker’s file, back on their first mission together, and reading that Amélie Lacroix had been successfully abducted by the agent Reaper.

“She’s not you, Gabe.”

His clenched both his fists and his legs fell apart into a black cloud and Sombra held the gaze of his false eyes.

“What did you say?”

“She’s not you. She’s different. This is what she wants. You don’t understand.”

He wavered, then reformed and relaxed slightly. “The fact remains, Sombra, that I outrank you. And you’re surrounded by hostiles. You are not in a position to disobey orders. Undo it.”

She stared at him for a moment, then sighed and raised a hand to the orb. Purple lines shot out from her finger tips as she hacked back in.

“Yours is in here too, you know,” she said mildly.

He cocked his head. 

“I can null it just as easily as I did Widow’s.”

He took a step towards her and froze when she wiggled her fingers and tutted. “How long do you think it would take them to remake that code, Gabe? I know you. You would have destroyed all the paperwork, all the notes, so that someone like me could never hack into you. But that also means that it would take these morons quite some time to rebuild you, wouldn’t they? And who knows what would happen in the mean time?”

“Stop it, Sombra.” His voice shook with anger.

“Now, Gabe. I know you want what’s best for Widow. But don’t you think she can take this hit, so that you can sleep at night?”

She smiled at him and he stared at her, and then took a step back. Her smile grew and she looked back up at the orb.

“Just one second, Gabe. Gotta stick a worm in here, so I can remotely access it. Just in case you change your mind.” She dropped her hand and hopped down from the chair and headed towards the door, breezing past Gabe. Some of his body flew off as she brushed past him.

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” he said.

She stopped and looked back at him. His shoulders were hunched and his voice was even hoarser than normal.

“I know enough,” she said. “Good night, Gabe.” Then she left the labs.

-

“Everything went okay,” Sombra said to Widow as soon as she walked in the door. “I need you to know that. Everything in our plan is still on track. We’re still safe.” Then she burst into big, ugly sobs. Widow raced towards her and Sombra took a stumbling step forward and Widow caught her and wrapped her arms around her.

“What’s wrong?” Widow whispered urgently. “What happened?”

Sombra took a deep breath, trying to quiet herself. “Nothing’s wrong,” she said. “Everyone’s going to get what they want.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have two more plot-heavy fics planned for this, but if there's anything you want to see, let me know!
> 
> My tumblr is @tacticalgrandma if you want to talk there.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, and any comments/kudos would mean the world to me <3


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